This invention relates to hydro-therapeutic foot-borne devices to be worn and utilized beneath the water; -and more specifically, it relates to such inventions intended to physiologically precondition an athlete's lower-extremities, or recondition distressed extremity conditions.
As a Neuromuscular-therapist treating a large number of running athletes, as well as being a runner/tri-athlete myself, it became evident to this inventor that distance running for extended time periods (over 5-years) commonly leads to sport specific imbalances; which brought me to develope an inexpensive corrective device.
Because the prime-movers in distance running (over 800 m) are the gastorc/soleus (calf-muscles), quadriceps (thigh muscles which straighten the knee), and iliopsoas (the primary flexors of the hip), their continued use encourages imbalances in strength and length with their antagonists (opposing muscles).
The quadriceps and the iliopsoas both alter the position of the pelvis as their normal relationship with their antagonist muscles becomes altered. As the quads and iliopsoas tend to shorten, the pelvis tends to tilt forward (anteriorly). This condition puts the hanstrings, which act as antagonists to the iliopsoas and quads, into a stretch. As the pelvis migrates further into anterior-tilt, the hamstrings are progressively strung taught. This is a prelude to hamstring-injury, because as the runner's stride-length opens (becomes longer), the hamstrings must be able to operate within a physiological, or normal range of motion-length. Because the hamstrings originate from the ischial-turberosity (sits bones), and insert at the tibia and fibula (bones of the lower-leg), this altered position of the pellvis will cause extensive microtrauma to the muscles. There are also both neurological and length/tension reasons why this postural change causes injury.
Because any muscle used in any sport is trained in a sport-specific manner, the hamstrings are very hard to adequately strengthen for running. This is because the hamstrings are two joint muscles, which function as both extensors of the hip (pulling the leg aftward) and flexors (benders) of the knee. Another important aspect making complete rehabilitation and prophylactic conditioning of the hamstrings hard to achieve in runners, is the rate of speed at which these muscles must operate during the running gait. The sprinter may induce joint rates of 1000-degrees/per-second at the knee, while a 5-10K runner may operate at half that speed, over extended periods of time.
The isokinetic machinery employed in physical-threapy today seldom operates at speeds over 400-degrees/per-second, resulting in relatively poor applicability to the running athlete. This lead me to develop a device which would facilitate strengthening of the hamstrings and gluteus maximus in the same neuromuscular gait-rate/ cycle-pattern experienced during actual running. This meant the device would have to strengthen (stress) the opposite (antagonist) muscles that normal running does; actually stressing the muscles much in the manner which tedious backward-running would.
It therefore became obvious to me that the only place I could adaquately meet the requirements of appropriate joint-speed, and induce variable-resistance in the same neuromuscular-pattern as an actual running-gait, was in the water; which unlike a cumbersome weighted-pully arrangement, that imposes a desirable isotonic resistance-factor only in select regions of the gait-cycle at any given time. Extensive trails employing different materials, drag-shapes, anchoring-strap systems, and alternate forms of gaiting-mechanisms, have brought me to conclude my present invention disclosure.